Panel components, such as spotlights, are mounted to panel elements. Panel elements can for example be panels for walls or for suspended ceilings and be of various materials such as wood fibre, aluminium, glass fibre, gypsum.
When mounting panel components several difficulties may occur. The panel element is for example easily damaged during installation of the panel component since the panel component is usually fixedly attached to the panel element. Panel elements of different thicknesses constitute a challenge since the panel components are usually adapted to fit only a certain panel thickness. Various panel element materials can also be a problem since the mounting means has to be implemented in different ways depending on the material of the panel element. Furthermore, the installation is troublesome and difficult since one usually has to fiddle in the space that is formed between the panel component and the panel element in order to fasten the panel component and sometimes even usage of a tool is necessary in order to mount the panel component.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,752,520 B2 describes a lighting apparatus comprising a fixing support having a collar, a locking lug and a vertical element. The locking lug can be moved from a locked position into an unlocked position. The lighting apparatus has a rod that can release the locking lug from its locked position, a zone for abutment and guidance of the locking lug, and a spring that can exert a pressure on the locking lug when the latter is in an unlocked position such that the lug, guided by the abutment and guidance area and by the vertical element, exerts a pressure on a false ceiling. When the fixing support is installed, the false ceiling is held between the locking lug and the collar.
Major drawbacks of this technique are the time and effort necessary to prepare the lighting apparatus and put it in the locked position. The installation itself is also enormously tedious and unnecessarily complicated. Furthermore, the construction of the lightning apparatus is extremely complicated.